Auntie Michele E. Lee

Michele E. Lee is a multi-disciplinary Soul who has worked in the creative arts for 40 years as an exhibiting artist, activist, writer, curator, author, historian, cultural anthropologist and educator.   

Her life works are listed below:

Author, Historian, Cultural Anthropologist

For six years, commencing in 1996, Ms. Lee documented the practice of Traditional African American healing. Starting with her own family lineage and healers who are from Mississippi, Louisiana and Virgina, Ms. Lee branched out to locate other healers in the south and parts of the eastern seaboard, weaving in and out of several indigenous nations. This journey took her to base herself in the south and live down a dirt road in rural North Carolina for 4 years. She sought out other healers throughout the south/southeast by word of mouth and often traversed through the backwoods with them looking for medicine plants. Ms. Lee apprenticed with several of the elders who shared their practice and knowledge with her. Her book, Working The Roots: Over 400 Years of Traditional African American Healing is the culmination of this sojourn!

Activism

• Chair of Art Against Apartheid for the SF Bay Area actively involved in protesting against racism in South Africa and here on our home turf in the USA and against the growing homeless population in the 1980s to today.

• Currently she works with and is a tribal member of the Afro-descendant Nation USA which is recognized by the Organization of American States.  Her work with them involves national liberation, decolonization, sovereignty, repair-a-tions/restoration and creating safe thriving communities for Afro-descendants in the USA.

Art Exhibitions and Residences

Ms. Lee is a visual artist who has exhibited at museums, galleries, universities and art parks.  Some of Lee's more notable exhibitions were at The Alternative Musuem in NYC, Long Island University (Brooklyn, NY), Santa Monica Museum of Art (Santa Monica, CA), Le Chambre Blanche (Quebec, Canada), Stone Quarry Hill Art Park in NY, University Art Museum (U.C. Santa Cruz), California African American Museum (Los Angeles), Sargent Johnson Gallery (San Francisco). She worked in the medium of painting, sculpture, installation, large scale earthworks and performance.

Ms. Lee has held artist residencies at Skowhegan (Maine), Socrates Art Park (NY) and Long Island University (NY). 

Wadastick Artists and Scholars Residency and Cultural Center, Co-founder and Executive Director

In 1998, Ms. Lee co-founded Wadastick Artists and Scholars Residency and Cultural Center in rural North Carolina.  The residency hosted artists from across the country and had sites at the Tuscarora Indian Nation, St. Helena Sea Island, South Carolina, in the heart of the Gullah culture and in, El Potrero, Mexico, a small clay-building village. Wadastick ran successfully for six years.

Curatorial positions:

• Visual Arts Curator for the California African American Museum in Los Angeles, CA.

• Curated exhibitions at the Berkeley Art Center in Berkeley, CA, 

• Sargent Johnson Gallery in San Francisco 

• Long Island University Galleries.

Education / Teaching

• Ms. Lee has taught art as adjunct professor at:

• The University of Rochester, Art Department

• U.C. Berkeley, Department of Art Practice

• California College of the Arts and 

• other public and private institutions nationwide. 

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• Ms. Lee holds a California Teaching Credential and currently teaches at a public school in east Oakland, CA -- her most challenging career yet! 

Lee holds a Masters degree from The University of Southern California, Bachelor's degree from Antioch College and an A.A. degree from The Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in San Francisco.  

Ms. Lee resides in Oakland, CA and has two grown children, a son and daughter.